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Nightmare Worsens In Japan; Trying To Block A Meltdown; Device To Measure Radiation; Japan's Economy; U.S. Pushes Hard To Help Japan; Hillary Clinton in Cairo; George Takei on Japanese Culture; Four N.Y. Times Journalists Reported Missing in Libya; U.S. Politics & Nuclear Energy

Aired March 16, 2011 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Suzanne, thanks very much, you have a great afternoon. I'm going to pick up where you left off.

Now, more than ever, when we talk about this nightmare in Japan, we're really talking about two nightmares -- the nuclear one and everything else.

Again today, fire broke out at that devastated Fukushima Daiichi plant. And another blast of radiation escaped, for reasons that are still not entirely clear.

The few remaining workers had to leave but they came right back in even greater numbers when the danger eased. This crisis stems from overheated fuel rods but elsewhere in Japan, a cold snap, including snow, is adding to the misery.

Searching, supporting, surviving, all of it is made more grueling because of the weather, look at that. Officially, the death toll has topped 4,000, with more than 8,000 still considered missing. This woman is scouring the rubble for her uncle. She thought she may have found his shoe.

The nation heard from the emperor today, that is an extremely rare event reserved for the direst of national emergencies. In a televised address, emperor Akihito says his heart is broken and he's deeply impressed by the courage of the survivors.

We can't really speak of courage without a word about those unnamed volunteer utility workers who have surely been exposed to life-threatening radiation levels at Fukushima Daiichi, the nuclear plant.

Nuclear experts call them heroes. Their company hasn't released any personal information about them, but a Japanese newspaper says one of them is 59 years old, six months away from retirement.

We heard this today from a plant worker's wife.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (translator): She says her husband's working at site in the face of danger of exposure to radiation but she wants him to do his best. She says he's replied by e-mail indicating a serious situation. He told her to take care of her herself because he won't be home for a while.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: We've got a lot more to report on the nuclear front. For a while today, traces of radioactive cesium and iodine found in tap water in Fukushima city, that's 50 miles away from the stricken plant. Later the water was clean and officials stressed there was never any danger to human health.

Authorities want to flood at least one of the super hot reactors with seawater dropped from a helicopter. An earlier flight was aborted when it -- the radiation spiked.

CNN's Stan Grant has been watching these developments and many others. He joins me now from Tokyo with the latest.

Stan, it's just after 2:00 a.m. there. What's happening at the plant? What's happening in Tokyo? I know we've had more tremors today.

STAN GRANT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, more tremors. You know, the tremors come and they are really a reminder that the country is going through so much and is not out of the woods. I think (ph) the tremors sort of take everyone back to that catastrophic event last week that started all of this.

What's going on at the power plant? You know, Ali, there is many questions as there are answers right now. In many ways, the questions are more important. What is actually happening? What's happening with the radiation levels? Why did they peak? Why did they suddenly drop? What's in them? What sort of radioactive elements are we talking about? How dangerous are they?

It was dangerous at one point today to force the evacuation of the faceless 50, as they're calling brave men who are staying in there to battle the last line of defense and try to bring this in control. They went and came back a bit later. They have been joined by others, about 180 workers now in there.

As you mentioned, they had to abort that attempt by helicopter to drop water on it because of the radiation levels. And then you found the radiation or radioactive material in the drinking water in Fukushima. They're telling people that they can still drink the water and it's not going to do harm, is one thing, getting them to believe it with so much happening, that's another because, Ali, the information is flowing from the government but the people are filling the gaps with their fear -- Ali.

VELSHI: Stan, it has been confusing. It's certainly been confusing to us over here when we hear it's safe, it's tremendously dangerous, it's safe, it's tremendously dangerous. What's the general feeling on the ground in Japan? First of all, there's -- there remains some degree of disorientation because of the continuing shakes and aftershocks. Is there some sense that this is getting better or is it still very precarious?

GRANT: Very precarious. You know, you are dealing with multiple events here, of course the earthquake, the tsunami, the devastation, the relief effort, the rescue effort, and now the nuclear crisis as well. Many foreigners just had enough and they've headed for the exit. They've gone to the airports, and we've seen long queues (ph) there. They say they just don't trust the information they're getting. They don't know whether they're being lied to, or misdirected, or whatever, they just don't know. That's the question, you just don't know.

All day I've tracked this -- well into the night. You know, Ali, sometimes in one hour you can get two or three different briefings from different agencies. Sometimes they conflict though, sometimes contradict. It's overwhelming, in many -- in many respects.

What the prime minister's doing now, he's joining -- forming a joint task force, they're going try to bring these things together, streamline the information, and get it out there.

Still, the questions though, Ali, the questions still remain. We don't any of (ph) those critical answers about what's going on, how much damage, and how much risk there is. Until we get that, the fear is going to remain.

VELSHI: It's got to be hard to get on with your daily life when there's such basic uncertainty. Stan, thanks for your great reporting there. We'll stay in touch with you. Stan Grant, my good friend in Tokyo right now, with a lot of uncertainty.

What we do know is what we can measure and that is -- we don't know what -- how dangerous the radiation is over at that Fukushima plant, what we do know is that there are winds.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: There are winds.

VELSHI: And the winds determine some of that danger.

MYERS: Correct, and the winds, at least at this point, are blowing offshore, and that couldn't be a better direction.

VELSHI: OK. Right.

MYERS: Any other direction would be bad. This is a perfect direction for the wind. Now it can't last because weather patterns come and weather patterns go.

Right now other people are saying, especially in Hawaii and in America, wait a minute, blowing offshore, yes, maybe that's good for Japan --

VELSHI: Well, I've heard that. Could that kind of radiation that we're not certain about how damaging it is have any affect in Hawaii and certainly into the United States?

MYERS: It completely depends on the isotope that comes out of that plant. Many plants -- many of these isotopes -- and then there's this radiation that comes out is like a sparkler, and it's gone, in ten seconds, it's not radioactive any longer.

VELSHI: OK.

MYERS: So, that would never make it over to America in ten seconds, but there are isotopes that can cling on to humidity, little pieces of moisture that can get into the atmosphere and possibly make it somewhere. At this point, it looks like a lot of this gets back up toward Russia and maybe toward Alaska, although there's not just to make -- to keep in mind, there's not enough of a radiation release right now for that to be occurred (ph).

We have watched all of these models, and I will show you this later on during the day. That is the north pole, and I never use this model ever, I've never even looked at it.

VELSHI: Yes, I've never seen this.

MYERS: But you have America, you have Europe, you have Russia, you have Japan, and so, the modelers -- the U.S. government can see every level of the atmosphere, and if a piece of radiation, a big piece of radiation -- a meltdown occurs, they will be able to run the models and figure out what's there and where the radiation's going to go.

VELSHI: OK, and that's an important distinction.

MYERS: We don't have a meltdown at the moment. We do not.

VELSHI: If there were a meltdown, as we know from Chernobyl, this stuff can carry for some distance. But we are - we've been talking to Carl Azuz, and Carol Costello and Sanjay Gupta, talking about the amount of radiation that is likely been released. It is not likely to have had some major effect across an ocean.

MYERS: Absolutely correct. But now, there is some slight breaking news we haven't had on air yet. Fukushima Daiichi is what we have been talking about.

VELSHI: Right, right.

MYERS: Shawn, zoom in. There's another plant 10 miles south of there, and they have issued a ten kilometer radius evacuation to that plant. This has just literally happened in the past few hours.

VELSHI: OK.

MYERS: Haven't had this on --

VELSHI: What do we think that is? Is that a fire? Is that a --

MYERS: We literally don't know.

VELSHI: We don't know. Some kind of emergency. MYERS: There's something enough -- there's enough of an emergency that they -- that the people that are living around this plant are being forced to move. Now, there's already a 30 kilometer around Daiichi.

VELSHI: Right. As Stan was saying, must be very, very unsettling to not know who's -- and I think he made the point, there are people who don't think the government's lying to them, they just don't know whether everybody's got the right information. It does seem to be changing for us.

MYERS: Would you want to be in that reactor?

VELSHI: If I didn't know, I'd rather get out, but that's hard for people who are struggling in the aftermath of an earthquake.

Thanks for following up on this. Keep us posted on this Fukushima Daiichi and tell us what happens there.

All right, Chad, experts say there's no need for Americans to worry about that radiation coming over from Japan, as Chad told us. So, why is there a rush on pills that help protect you against radiation exposure? I'm going to tell you about that on the other side of the break.

And here's our social media question of the day. Should nuclear power be used as a source of energy? Why or why not? Join the discussion on my blog, CNN.com/Ali. You can also post to my Facebook or Twitter accounts that you see right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: As Japan's nuclear crisis grows, a Missouri company trying to keep up with demand for potassium iodide which keeps the thyroid from absorbing radiation. Fleming Pharmaceuticals says it has been inundated with requests so it's scrambling to fill orders by ramping up production lines, even though experts say there is little chance of radiation from Japan spreading to the United States, it is doing very little to calm fears.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBBY FLEMING WURDACK, CO-OWNER, FLEMING PHARMACEUTICALS: Keep it going, keep it going, keep it going, there's a demand. We've heard from federal agencies, we've heard from state governments, pharmacies, doctor offices, housewives, daycare centers, hospitals, the list goes on and on. We're doing whatever we can to get product to Japan as quickly as possible and people in the United States that are afraid that they could be impacted as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Emergency management officials say there is no need for people in the United States to ingest potassium iodide. They say doing so would be ineffective and could cause side effects. On AC 360 last night, our Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta explained when it is necessary to take the supplement.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: In terms of safety for people around, and we have heard about iodide pills, that there's a lot of -- it's unclear, but there's people -- some people are saying you take those in advance of any exposure. The advice we've been given is it's only in the event of exposure.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, here's the thing about iodide pills is that, you know, once you take it, you have a certain window of protection, about 48 hours. So, you don't want to take it too early because you close the window on yourself. So, timing is really key with this. It is protective but you usually want to take it in the face of an imminent exposure or right after exposure, and then you got yourself some protection. If you take it too early, you're not going to get protection when you need it.

COOPER: And obviously, people in all of these different areas are trying to measure radiation doses to get a sense for people that you have -- you have the same thing.

GUPTA: Yes, this is just -- it's a pocket decimeter (ph). It basically tells you two things. One is since you're wearing it, how much radiation have you been exposed to, you know, this is measuring that. And also it has an alarm, yours does, if you suddenly find yourself in an area where there's too much radiation, it will alarm. You can't see the number here, Anderson, but I've been wearing this for about 24 hours. It went up .001 now, very, very small amount, probably from normal background radiation. Yours is still at zero but it's likely to go up, and that would be normal. If it got up into the one range, so 1,000 times that, then that would be of concern.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Well, the human toll in Japan may be incalculable, as recovery slowly begins, we're starting to assess what could happen to the Japanese economy. It's the third biggest in the world, after all. How's that affect you? I'll tell you, on the other side of this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED NHK REPORTER (voice-over): This is the Matsuiba Communican (ph) on Kesennuma Miyagi Prefecture where 450 people are now sheltered. Many people have lost their homes in the tsunami.

The women living in the shelters are cooking here. They say that helping each other is encouraging them to get by.

This woman says that there are many people who have lost their houses and they're in the same boat. And therefore, they are cheering each other up and encouraging each other as they live day by day. The people at shelter says that they are looking for what they can do so that they can go through and get through these troublesome days. The Communican (INAUDIBLE) says that if people help each other, there will be a bright future ahead. He says that that is the hope that people here share.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: OK, while we continue to take account of the human toll of this disaster in Japan, we're also starting to take a look at what might happen to that country's economy. It is the third largest in the world behind the United States and China.

Nariman Behravesh is the chief economist for HIS, a global economic and financial forecasting firm.

Nariman, good to see you.

Tell me, before we talk about Japan, typically what happens to a country's economy after a major disaster? Whether it's an earthquake or something else. What typically happens to a country?

NARIMAN BEHRAVESH, CHIEF ECONOMIST, IHS: Well, usually there's a hit to growth, which is to say growth goes negative briefly because activity in that particular region comes to a grinding halt. But that has an effect on GDP growth in that quarter, maybe even the subsequent quarter. But very soon after that, when the reconstruction kicks in, growth actually accelerates and you get a big boost to growth. And that's probably going to happen to Japan in the third or fourth quarter. So down in the very near term and then significantly up as we get a little further out.

VELSHI: What's the difference in Japan than from the tsunamis in 2005, the earthquakes in Pakistan, the earthquake in Haiti?

BEHRAVESH: Well, two things, obviously. The poorer the country, the bigger the effect. So what I was referring to was rich countries, like the U.S. or Japan.

VELSHI: Right.

BEHRAVESH: In places like Indonesia or Haiti, the effect is longer lasting because, you know, they're poorer countries. But as we look at the situation in Japan, the big difference has to do with electricity generation. Our calculus is that because of these nuclear power plants that are essentially off line, there are about six or seven of them, also because of coal-fired generation, which is offline because the coal is soaked basically by sea water, can't be used, about 10 percent -- 10 percent of Japan's electricity power generation capacity is nonfunctioning right now. That's a fair amount. And that's creating the problem of the rolling blackouts and it's disrupting Japan's manufacturing capacity throughout the country, not just in these prefectures. So that's different this time around.

VELSHI: So let's discuss this. Japan is an interesting country. It's an importer and exporter. It's a consumer -- a very big consumer country, but it's also a producer. Most of the stuff we import here in the United States from Japan is automobiles, electronics, technological equipment. What is the effect of what could be happening in Japan on the rest of the world, on the global economy?

BEHRAVESH: Well, the bad news/good news is, Japan has not been that big of an engine of growth. So from that perspective, the effect in terms of exports to Japan are fairly small. We only export about 5 percent of our total exports to Japan. That's less than 1 percent of our GDP. So it's tiny. So, in that sense, the effect is very small.

The bigger, potential impacts is on the import side, where we import a lot of components. The supply chain problems everybody's referring to, which is to say that could create disruptions for automobile manufacturers, for cell phone manufacturers, for consumer electronics manufacturers in the United States. And I think that could be bigger, but probably temporary. Maybe two, three weeks of disruptions.

VELSHI: Nariman, good to talk to you about this. Thanks very much for joining us. We'll keep an eye on it with you.

Be sure to tune in to "Your Bottom Line" each Saturday morning at 9:30 Eastern. "Your Money" airs Saturday's at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and Sunday's at 3:00.

Well, the White House is pushing hard to get Americans involved in Japan's nuclear crisis. Ed Henry is going to explain why it is so important, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right, I want to go to Ed Henry. He's at our Washington bureau today.

There is still this question about how involved the U.S. should be in Japan. Bottom line, Ed, is that the U.S. has offered a great deal of help. We've got a lot of military there. We've been putting military ships into place. What's the new development?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the new development in the next few minutes, the president's going to be sitting down with Rajiv Shah, who is his administrator of the USAID, the agency for international development. It's important because the president's going to be briefed on exactly what's been going on.

When you talk about some of the details, it's pretty intense. I mean already the U.S. government has helped deliver over 7,000 pounds of food and water to relief victims there in Japan. You've had over 50 flight missions from the U.S. military in order to try and do search and rescue and help save more people who have been trapped now for days and are maybe clinging to life.

And so the bottom line is, the president's going get an update in the next few minutes, about 1:35 Eastern Time at White House, from is USAID administrator. And it just shows kind of the breadth and depth of how intense, you know, the U.S. efforts are to try and help this key ally.

VELSHI: Ed, the other issue, of course, in these nuclear reactors, there's some new news about what the military is doing with respect to that?

HENRY: Yes, they're bringing in some vehicles to try to help cool the reactors, which is obviously a very important step. And we've got some interesting kind of new information about what's going on. We've been talking about how in recent days several experts from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission here in the U.S. have actually gone on site to Japan to try and help their Japanese counterparts deal with this.

But just in the last hour or so, the head, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission here in the U.S., was supposed to be on Capitol Hill testifying and the chairman of a panel up there said, you know, that the head of the NRC actually had to leave to go to the White House unexpectedly. And so we're still trying to dig out what kind of details that involves as to whether there was a briefing, whether or not there was some new information he was passing on or information, frankly, he was getting from the administration to bring to Capitol Hill. So it gives you an idea how, on multiple levels right now, the White House is trying to stay on top of this.

VELSHI: All right, Ed, thanks very much. We'll stay on top of it with you. Ed Henry at our Washington bureau.

VELSHI: I want to go right to Cairo. Wolf Blitzer is on the phone. He's traveling with Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State.

Wolf, what have you got?

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": We had a long interview with the secretary of state, Ali on four subjects -- Japan, Libya, Bahrain, what's happening in Bahrain right now, serious strains, by the way, in U.S./Saudi relations as a result of that. And, finally her own future.

And if you have time, I'll go through and give you the headlines.

VELSHI: Yes, please.

BLITZER: First on Japan. Right now, she says it's a minute by minute decision the U.S. is considering but as of right now, as of this minute, the U.S. is not going to urge its citizens, its diplomatic personnel, family members, U.S. Military, to start evacuating from Japan, but that could change based on what's going on right now. It's a very, very worrisome situation, potentially she says it could be even worse, considerably worse than Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, which occurred back in 1979. She's really worried, obviously, about what's happening in Japan right now. We had a lengthy exchange on that.

On Libya, I said to her, you know, it looks like Gadhafi is winning and she got very, you know, angry -- not angry necessarily, but very forceful in suggesting Gadhafi will not win. He is not winning. I said, well look, he's getting ready to move on the rebel forces in Benghazi. And she said, you know what? The United Nations Security Council is getting ready to move on a no-fly zone resolution. I said well, what about the Chinese and the Russians? They might veto it. She said, well after the Arab league endorsed it, they might not.

We went back and forth, basically. I said while you guys are talking a lot of Libyans are going to die and there's going to be a slaughter in Benghazi and elsewhere. And she recognized the dangers but said adamantly the United States is not going to do anything unless the U.N. Security Council authorizes for it first. There's not going to be any unilateral action.

She did make it clear, by the way, since the Arab League want a no-fly zone, she would very like the Arab League countries to participating in a no-fly zone. As you know, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE, Qatar, they have a robust air force, all of these countries and if they want a no-fly zone, why can't they start participating in it? So we went a long back and forth on that. And she clearly is frustrated.

But I think on the Bahrain issue she was upset about Saudi Arabia's decision and the United Arab Emirates decision to send ground forces to help the King in Bahrain. She said this is not acceptable, it's not working. Yes, the U.S. has a close relationship with these countries but there's a difference of opinion right now, serious difference, there's a serious strain in relationship.

VELSHI: Well, Wolf, let's get to the core of the first for a second because this has been an issue with respect to Bahrain. It's a country where the leadership has had excellent relationships with its neighboring countries and with the west. It's an important place, as you mentioned, yesterday to American interests. But there is always a danger of Bahrain becoming a bit of a proxy war, Iran on one side, Saudi Arabia on the other side, and the U.S. caught up in the middle.

Is that the danger that we're looking at here?

BLITZER: Absolutely. And let's not forget, Bahrain is the home of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf. It's a strategically important country, an oil-producing country, an affluent country. So there's a lot of interest.

The protesters are largely Shiite. And I asked her, are you concerned that if these protesters win, the Shiites in Bahrain will then align themselves with the Shiite majority in Iran. And she went back and forth with me on this issue but she made it clear that what the Bahraini government is now doing, the Bahraini military, the Saudi military, the UAE military, is not acceptable to the United States, and especially not allowing some of these protesters who have been shot to go to hospitals. She's very upset about this.

And as you correctly point out, Ali, there's a lot of strategic and geopolitical interest in what's going -- economic interests -- Bahrain. By no means an easy issue. But her frustration was clearly evident when we discussed that and discussed Libya, discussed Japan. And at the end of the interview we understand what she wants to do and what she doesn't want to do. She was adamantly -- she told me in no uncertain terms -- she doesn't want to be secretary of state if President Obama is re-elected and serve in a second term. She doesn't want to be secretary of defense. She doesn't want to be vice president of the United States and she has no intention for running for president in 2016. She was very forceful on all of those issues.

VELSHI: Well I think it's a good bet somebody as busy as her is going to be doing something interesting.

Wolf, thanks for this and thanks for staying on top of this because there are some people who express concern that as a result of our necessary and extensive coverage of what is going on in Japan, which is going to continue there's been some slippage of what's going on in the Middle East.

And we're still very much on top of this and you are for us, as well. This is going to be on Wolf's show. He's going to be doing "THE SITUATION ROOM" live from the Middle East again so make sure you tune into that because we will have all of our coverage of Japan.

We will also have a very, very good and detailed look at what is going on in Bahrain, what's going on in Egypt, what is going on in Libya, what's developed in Tunisia. Wolf is doing all of this on his show tonight. So make sure you tune in for that 5:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

Back to Japan now. Let's take a look at these pictures from Sendai. Despite all of the chaos that surrounds them, for the most part the Japanese have remained calm and orderly. Coming up we're going to discuss Japan's culture and how that culture deals with tragedy. I've got a very special guest who you'll know as Mr. Sulu from "Star Trek."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

It is nearly 2:30 in the morning in Japan. Another sleepless night for lots of people there with no end to the quake aftershocks or this building nuclear crisis. Shelters are overflowing at the edge of the evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The situation there took another scary turn today when a big white plume started streaming from one of the reactors.

Authorities said it appeared to be a radioactive steam -- radioactive steam from a breach in reactor three's containment structure. There are four reactors at that plant. The small crew that was still working at plant was temporarily evacuated until those radiation levels dropped.

The official death toll has jumped again. It is now 4,314. But nearly 9,000 people are still listed as missing. Meantime the weather is adding to misery in the quake and tsunami zone. Snow has been falling on homeless survivors, rescue crews, anyone alive under all that debris. The freezing temperatures are expected to hang on into next week. Some other stories that you missed. I want to bring you up to speed on a CIA contractor jailed for killing two men in Pakistan has been released. Raymond Davis charged with murder in the January incident. He said he shot them in self-defense. Davis earned his freedom, thanks to a provision in Pakistani law that allows victims' families to pardon a murderer. Sometimes there's a payment to the family commonly known as blood money. A lawyer connected to the case tells CNN more than $1 million was paid.

We've just gotten comment from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who says the U.S. didn't pay any compensation to those families. So who did it?

Jury selection has begun in New Haven, Connecticut, in the second trial tied to that brutal home invasion and triple murder. Joshua Komisarjevsky is charged with killing a mother and her two daughters in July 2007. He also faces charges of sexual assault, kidnap, arson, robbery, 21 counts in all. If he's convicted, he faces the death penalty. His alleged partner in crime was tried last year and is sitting on death row as we speak. Opening arguments in this trial are expected in September.

And hip-hop mainstay Nate Dogg, aka Nathaniel Hale, has died at the age of 41. No cause of death yet but his health has declined after suffering two strokes in 2007 and 2008. Nate Dogg did some solo projects but he was best known as a hook man for some of the biggest names in rap. His chorus has helped turn songs into hits. The standout, "Regulate," his Grammy-nominated collaboration with Warren G.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: The last few days we have been seeing disaster footage from Japan and watched death tolls rise while survivors continue their search for missing loved ones.

The most recent numbers from Japan show over 4,000 dead. They show 8,000, almost 9,000 are missing and 2,000 have been injured. Through all of this one thing we haven't seen much of is violence, chaos, looting, something we've seen in other disasters across the world, even here in the United States.

Japanese-American actor and activist George Takei joins us now to talk about how Japan is dealing with the tragedy. You will obviously recognize him for his role in "Star Trek," or as announcer on "The Howard Stern Show."

George, thank you for joining us. Good to see you. How are your friends and family doing in Japan?

GEORGE TAKEI, TELEVISION AND FILM ACTOR: I was concerned about them and I checked first thing Friday morning. They have all checked in well. The friends are scattered all over the Tokyo area and the Osaka area and that's a little distance from where the tsunami and the earthquake happened. So I'm very grateful for that. VELSHI: George, let's talk a little bit about is there -- is there something cultural until Japan? The word you gave us, how do you say that? Gaman (ph)?

TAKEI: Gaman.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: What does that mean?

TAKEI: It means to endure with fortitude and dignity, self- restraint, control. And, you know, because Japan is a very densely populated country, you have to be respectful of others and exercise self-restraint. And it's really moving and powerful to see people who, I'm sure, are experiencing great anguish having lost family and loved ones, to be so orderly and dignified in that.

It remains me of when I was growing up as a child in the U.S. interment camps. We had to line up for everything there. And I remember one incident, my mother -- I was a child, we had a little baby, my sister, and we regularly lined up for medicine for her. And I had to go to the bathroom and I told my mother, I need to go. And she said, "Gaman." Hold it. Be dignified. And I couldn't. And I slightly wet myself. It was very embarrassing. But it's that that I see again in the pictures that we see on our television screens. It's very moving.

VELSHI: George, what are the limits of Gaman? what point do you -- do the Japanese say I'm not sure that the authorities know what they're talking about or what they're doing? Is it based on trust for authority, or is it based on something else?

TAKEI: Well, the alternative is to start shouting, complaining, and what is that going to do? It's just going to make the situation worse. So it's better to restrain yourself. And if you see that there might be something questionable, you gather together collectively.

Japan is a very collectivist society and they work in concert with others. And in doing that, you have to exercise restraint as well as endure some people who might not be quite as restrained as you are.

VELSHI: Here's something interesting, though, that collectivist society is very helpful in a disaster like this. We have found people going back into those nuclear plants to try and deal with the situation. So this Gaman doesn't stop you, dignity and that reserve doesn't stop the Japanese from solving the problem and going in and trying to deal with the tragedy?

TAKEI: Well, there again, there's Gaman. They are members of a community, so they have -- they know that they are taking a high risk but they bear it, they endure it, fortitude, and for the sake of the others, they go in to keep the situation in the nuclear plants from getting worse. It's a remarkable cultural trait. I think it's a very distinctive thing to the Japanese. And I'm, you know, a third generation Japanese-American, but I remember growing up with that concept.

VELSHI: Well, a lot of people -- I know you and I have both been tweeting about this and a lot of people were very interested in hearing this conversation and also saying I wonder what lessons the rest of the world can learn from the Japanese and from Gaman. So, thanks for sharing this with us.

George, great to see --

TAKEI: And, may I add, in the spirit of Gaman for Americans and everyone, human beings, to help bring some aid to the Japanese. At a crisis time like this, we are all Japanese.

VELSHI: We are all Japanese, I saw you tweeted that the other day. The world is definitely -- the sympathies and the efforts of the world are with Japan right now.

Thanks, George. Good to see you. Thanks very much for being on with us.

TAKEI: Thank you.

VELSHI: George Takei. You remember him as Mr. Sulu from "Star Trek." Don't forget, CNN.com is more than breaking news and original videos. You can also check out pages like the CNN religion blog at belief.blogs.CNN.com. Lots of great stuff there on how the Japanese and their religion helps them cope with this tragedy.

When the tsunami warning sounds, about the only thing you can do is run for higher ground. But one man has actually invented a tsunami shelter. You've got to see how this thing works. It's today's Big I. I'm going to show it to you when we come back.

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VELSHI: We have breaking news for you right now.

CNN has confirmed that four "New York Times" journalists covering the fighting in eastern Libya were reported missing today. The journalists are all experienced at war coverage. They were last in contact with their editors in New York on Tuesday morning Eastern time, so more than 24 hours ago.

They were witnessing the flight of rebels from the town of Ajdabiya, eastern town of Ajdabiya. There were some second hand reports of the journalists being swept up by advancing Libyan government forces, but nobody could confirm this.

At this point, we have confirmed that four missing journalists -- there are four missing journalists. They are, Anthony Shadid, he is the Beirut bureau chief for "The New York Times," Steven Farrell, a reporter and videographer who was kidnapped, by the way, by the Taliban in 2009 and he was rescued by British commandos; two photographers have also apparently disappeared, Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario . Lynsey Addario has been on the show a few times, she is a noted photographer. She is particularly noted for bringing images of people affected by crisis and by tragedy. She has been a friend to our show. She is one of the four "New York Times" journalists who have now been reported missing in eastern Libya in Ajdabiya.

"The New York Times" says their families and colleagues are anxiously seeking information about their situation and praying that they have safe. We will continue to follow this story and bring you more on it.

Four New York journalists, the Beirut bureau chief, Anthony Shadid, Steven Farrell, a reporter and videographer, and two photographers, Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario, have been reported missing in eastern Libya. We'll get more on this and bring it back to you.

I want to get to our "Big I" today. It's hard to see damage like this and wonder how anyone could survive. What if there was a tsunami shelter? When a tsunami comes it's almost impossible to get away from it. What if there was somewhere safe to go as soon as the warning sounds, because you don't get a lot of time? Something that could stand up to the massive, destructive waves.

Well there actually is one U.S. patented system, you're looking at it. Looks like a big red capsule of sorts, it's called the STATIM shelter. STATIM, S-T-A-T-I-M, is an acronym for storm, tornado and tsunami interconnected modules. This thing can withstand a tsunami or a tornado. It's made of concrete and rebar which allows the shelter to withstand the initial forces of the storm and float on the water.

Let's look at this in the case of a tsunami, what would happen. You see the tsunami wave comes, you get into this thing, the wave actually picks it up -- it can float, even though it's concrete and rebar, it floats -- but it's tethered and it stays in place. It floats above the water. It's a lifeboat, basically, of sorts.

Here's computer rendering I want to show you of the STATIM after the storm hits. Take a look at this. It floats on top of the water.

I want to talk Miguel Serrano, he is the inventor of this system, he joins me live from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

This is remarkable, if it were to work. First of all, how many people can get inside one of these units?

MIGUEL SERRANO, INVENTOR, STATIM SHELTER SYSTEM: It's approximately between 50 to 70 people.

VELSHI: From 7 to 15 people?

SERRANO: Fifty to 70 people.

VELSHI: Fifty to 70, five zero to seven zero people?

GUST: Yes. It's of considerable size with enough capacity to serve a large area. And the idea is to have them spread in a way that everybody has a chance to access one within a reasonable amount of time, basically responding to visual cues of tsunamis in places maybe the warning doesn't reach or there isn't any warning, remote places.

VELSHI: Have you -- have you been able to try something like this out? I know there's a patent for it. It's not manufactured yet, is that correct?

SERRANO: That's correct. We're working and we need training (ph) the research and development and prototyping.

But I can tell you that since the 1850s, a French inventor has been working with concrete boats and ships. Actually, the U.S. in World War I commissioned an emergency fleet made completely out of concrete. Also, MIT holds competitions on cement canoes. So this is basically old technology put to a better use to get a resource that's cheap and economical so it's implementable in mass volume.

VELSHI: I'm looking -- we're looking at a picture right now that shows them interconnecting. You call them interconnected. They look like capsules, but can they be connected?

SERRANO: Yes. The thing is that in order to make it feasible, they have to be constructed en masse, so it cannot be done monolithically, one piece. You have to break it up so you can apply mass production techniques.

And then you can transport it using conventional transportation means, trucks, railroads (INAUDIBLE), and you can reach final destination, even remote places. And at the last moment, you align them, join them, and using a post-tension (ph) cabling technique, within minutes, you should have a hole already built and sealed. Then it's a matter of installing accessories -- ventilations, seating and GPS interlink, supplies.

So it should work --

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: And how long -- if they go in there, how long could they last in there?

SERRANO: The supplies should last for seven days. It would tend to situations like the ones left after these types of events where you have a few resources to tend to resupply to people and to communicate with them and prioritize rescue.

VELSHI: All right, this is excellent. Very interesting stuff. Thanks very much for joining us about it.

Miguel Serrano is the inventor of the STATIM shelter system. I've been reading about this fantastic, fantastic stuff. If you want more information on the tsunami shelter, which is hopefully in development soon, go to my blog, CNN.com/Ali, and I'll link you to more information. CNN's Dana Bash followed a lobbyist for the nuclear energy industry as he made the rounds trying to assure lawmakers during this crisis in Japan. I'm going to show you what he was up against when we come back.

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VELSHI: In the U.S., nuclear energy has long been a political hot potato. CNN senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash looks at how the disaster in Japan is affecting nuclear industry lobbying on Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's a reason Alex Flint is moving so fast to get to Capitol Hill. He's a top lobbyist for the nuclear energy industry, walking the halls of Congress, trying to reassure lawmakers watching Japan. He's worried support for U.S. nuclear power could unravel.

ALEX FLINT, LOBBYIST ON NUCLEAR ENERGY INDUSTRY: It is going to be nonstop for several hours here up on the Hill, and then we're running 24 hours a day right now.

BASH: Flint, a former top Senate aide turned lobbyist, is taking industry executives to closed-door meetings all over Capitol Hill.

FLINT: All we're doing is sharing information. We've got a set of frequently-asked questions about the situation in Japan.

BASH: This briefing drew 150 congressional staffers. CNN was allowed inside only after it was over.

FLINT: We think that we've got procedures in place that make us prepared if something like this were to happen in the United States.

COSTELLO: Flint is careful not to sound like he's pressuring lawmakers at such a sensitive time, but there is no question he's tried to hold on to bipartisan support for nuclear power that has been building over the years.

Yet already, some powerful backers of nuclear energy are wavering.

SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (I-CT), CHAIRMAN, HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: It would be irresponsible not to stop, step back and learn some lessons, if there are some, which I'm sure there will be, from what's happened in this disaster in Japan.

BASH: Senate Homeland Security Chairman Joe Lieberman wants the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to wait for more information about Japan's crisis before approving pending permits for new U.S. nuclear plant beyond the 104 now operating.

And now in question on Capitol Hill, $36 billion in loan guarantees President Obama requested for more nuclear power plants, which the industry desperately needs to expand.

The president says nuclear power should be a key source of energy. His energy secretary urged lawmakers not to make rash judgments.

STEVEN CHU, ENERGY SECRETARY: It's probably premature to saying except we will learn from this.

BASH: Other top lawmakers agreed.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: We ought not to make the American, U.S. domestic energy policy in the wake of a catastrophic event.

BASH: But nuclear energy lobbyist like Flint are taking nothing for granted.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And boy is he taking nothing for granted. Ali, I want you to check out this picture. It's Alex Flint, the lobbyist that we followed around, you just saw him in that piece, he is sitting right behind the energy secretary, Steven Chu, all morning at a hearing on this subject -- Ali.

VELSHI: All right, Dana, we'll stay on top of this with you. Thanks very much.

And we'll have more news about Japan coming up right after this break.

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